Judge Cyrus L. Pershing
The man who lost a race for governorship to Republican John F. Hartranft.
Hartranft was voted into office by a pressing Irish vote catalyzed
by the Mollies.
He was elected President Judge of Schuykill County in 1872,
where he returned after the defeat against Hartranft in 1875.
Pershing presided over the Molly Maguire trials and has been
criticized by revisionist historians for his biased feelings siding
with the prosecution.

[1] The Molly Maguires
were an ethnoreligious terrorist force active from the 1860’s to the 1870’s.
Their role as a labor force is disputable, depending entirely on perception.
It was within this period that the Pennsylvania anthracite coal regions
saw a level of violence eclipsing the west’s gunslingers.

[2] The conception of the
Molly Maguires occurred at a time long before child labor laws, a minimum
wage, suitable standards on working conditions, or any organized form of
labor union; the first geographically encompassing the Pennsylvania coal
region was the shabbily organized, often squabbling, General Council of
the Workingmen’s Associations of the Anthracite Coal Fields founded on
March 17, 1869. Long before this organization came into existence,
the Molly Maguires were an active labor force, although lacking in focused
goals for the working class. They did intimidate, beat, bash, cripple,
and often murder mine owners, supervisors put in charge for owners in absentia,
police, and anyone who spoke out against them.

[3] The name is something
of an enigma. Multiple sources say it stems from the isle of Eire.
When absentee English landlords put an Irish Protestant, Scot, English,
or Welshman in their place, cutthroats which rebelled against them took
this name. Molly Maguire is said to have been an actual woman, a
widow, who would not leave her cottage when Protestant Irish, English,
Welsh, or Scottish attempted to remove her for her Catholicism. These
were dark times of persecution for Irish Catholics and were not to get
better by crossing the Atlantic. Eventually, the English made a motion
that would not allow Catholics to hold land. The Irish were hopelessly
shut out. A cross-dressing trend among angered Irish land tenants
was born. “Take that from a son of Molly Maguire!” was often heard
before an offensive person of authority was bashed accordingly. With
the potato famines of the 1840s, it mattered little whether they were persecuted;
no violent retaliation would stop the suffering of starvation. The
influx of Irish Catholics in America rose in a J curve.

[4] It is in this time many
of the American Mollies arrived in Pennsylvania. These were not good
times for the Irish in America. Many “Help Wanted” signs were followed
with “Irish Need Not Apply.” The origin of the Mollies in America
probably occurred during a bar room brawl when someone shouted, “Take that
from a son of Molly!” It was something they were used to, having
arrived from their homeland, impregnated with foreign persecutors, the
same who persecuted them here. The secret organization of the Molly
Maguries was also something they were used to, something they had not only
inherited, but lived. What is known about the American Mollies in
Pennsylvania is that they worked within the legal organization “The Ancient
Order of the Hibernians,” otherwise known as the A.O.H., the largest fraternal
organization of the times; even larger than the Masons.

John "Black Jack" Kehoe's House of the Hibernians

[5] What is unknown
as far as the validity of their name, their communal or individualistic
allegiance to the name’s use or to the A.O.H.’s, the date of their founding
in America or under what circumstances -- is all made up with the
articulate documentation of their inner workings and attribution to violent
activities. This vision we receive on account of Alan Pinkerton’s
potentially most infamous detective, James McParlan.

[6] The Mollies were made
up of Irishmen, some had been mix-bred in the evolution of mongrel America,
but almost all were made up of full-blooded Irish Catholics, a demographic
shunned from work in all fields except those of the most menial labor.
Many and most members worked in the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania
in order to feed their families. The group used violence and terrorism
to combat the conditions of the mines, inflicting horror on police, supervisors,
owners, blowing up railroad cars full of coal, organizing riots, sending
out threats to everyone who spoke out against them.

[7] The organization was highly
intelligent in format. Among the region’s Ancient Order of Hibernians
existed separate divisions for each village, “bodies,” microcosmic groups
each with its own body master, treasurer, secretary, and outstanding members
(brethren). The county delegate for Schuylkill county, otherwise
known as “The King of the Mollies,” was John “Black Jack” Kehoe. The body
divisions would meet to discuss societal events, terrorist acts, and other
issues. People who were attempting to undermine the organization
were fingered and brought into the body’s discussion. Decisions were
made as to proper action. If a brother had a problem with, let’s
say, a supervisor who had fired him for appearing drunk at work or cheated
him out of the proper pay for a carload of coal, or if there were a man
who had spoken out against the Mollies, be him in the clergy or not, the
body would listen to the case, those for and those against, voting in accord
to democratic law upon the requests of the antagonist and protagonist.
If murder were decided upon, a crippling bashing, or even a lesser beating,
the job would be allotted to another body across the county. The
men in the local chapter would be advised as to the time / space reality
of when the assault would take place and would set up valid alibis for
themselves. The imported Mollies would perform the task at hand,
dissolving into the wooded landscape to hike or take a train back to their
home town, having usually performed the task in public during daylight
as unknown strangers to the said community. Likewise, the “return
of a favor” would be granted upon request of the once actively violent
body. In this way, the organization as a whole was able to secure
for themselves a form of anarchic, martial law in which none dared defy
them for close to twenty years.

[8] James McParlan, a very
outgoing Irishman, had been hired by Alan Pinkerton on behalf of Franklin
B. Gowen. Gowen was the owner of the Reading Railroad, best described
as an ideological capitalist (to many, a coal baron), the former District
Attorney of Schuylkill County and therefore, no stranger to Molly violence,
and collector of many mines. He hired McParlan to infiltrate the
Mollies, collect evidence, and crush the organization. Gowen was
motivated purely by selfish reasons in that he saw labor unions extinguishing
his capital gain. Gowen, a Protestant Irishman, wanted one thing
-- to control the manufacture and production of coal. In order to
destroy the labor unions, he created a myth that spread with the help of
mediated media -- that the labor union was synonymous with the Mollies.
Gowen has, of course, earned a selfish, elitist, almost disgusting image
by revisionist historians. Almost eleven years after Kehoe hung by
the neck until dead, perhaps Gowen saw the future of his name and committed
suicide in a Washington D.C. hotel room.

[9] James McParlan, in late
October 1873, armed with the new name, James McKenna, set out on a mission
which would take him nearly five years, 44 months in all. He was
to become a Molly Maguire, report to one person – Captain Robert J. Linden
of Philadelphia. Only three people knew of his identity : Gowen,
Pinkerton, and Linden. Slowly, McParlan made head way into the organization,
gaining respect among the criminals, stopping many crimes from occurring,
and reporting the inner workings of the society. He was not so adamant
in stopping the crimes as to stop the murders -- he needed those to have
a case. So, he let them happen, knowing full well, having even voted
for or against such acts, eventually accumulating evidence enough and testifying
on the stand, undermining one of the tightest terrorist organizations ever
to have been bred on American soil. Twenty years of rule by the Molly
Maguires was brought to a crushing end by one man’s righteous treason.

[10] The Mollies were aware
of suffrage. John Kehoe had a mind for politics, attaining the governor’s
friendship with the Irish vote, for which the governor, John F. Hartranft,
granted only one pardon, arriving five minutes too late to save James McDonnell,
the hairy man from Tuscarora, who was hung with his pardon detained at
the jailhouse door. Other than that, after all was said and done,
the Mollies were stomped out of existence, and Governor Hartranft had raised
not one finger to help the twenty accused from swinging on the gallows.
The judge presiding over these trials was Cyrus L. Pershing, the man who
had lost the race with Hartranft for the said governorship. Pershing
has been berated by revisionist historians for his biased emotional paradigm.

Alexander Cambell
Native to Donegal, Ireland. Moving to America in 1868, he operated
a tavern in Tamaqua
before moving to Storm Hill in the Lansford area of Carbon County.
He served as the bodymaster of the AOH in the Lansford area.
He was tried and found guilty of the murder of John P. Jones and, soon
afterwards, of Morgan Powell.
Hung at the Carbon County Jail in Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877,
his legendary handprint can still be viewed today as
his last declaration of innocence before being taken to the gallows.

[11] When it was
all said and done, twenty men were hung, the guilty along with the innocent.
It seemed proving a man a member of the A.O.H. was enough for the often
non-English speaking Pennsylvania Dutch juries to find the said man guilty.
Pershing sent them to hang. The Molly Maguires were through.
To the dismay of the coal barons, the unions would gain the strength they
so desperately needed and, in doing so, would join to create the United
Mine Workers in 1890, one year after Gowen’s suicide, the most powerful
labor force seen to date.

This pamphlet, of sorts, recounts the labor difficulties dating back
before the big strike of 1874. Before this momentous strike and momentous
failure on the part of the miners, strikes were local events at one colliery.
This was the first organized labor strike in the coal regions of Pennsylvania.
As time goes on, we see history being kinder to the Molly Maguires.
This article in the 1940s gives us a sense of the unfair working conditions
of the mines. We are shown coffin notices, the infamous death threats
of the Mollies, and an explanation as to their purpose. We are taught
the signs, otherwise known as the “Goods.” Resenting the draft, we
are told the political power of the Mollies in avoiding the Civil War.
Pinkerton and McParlan are then dwelled on, along with the victims and
murderers of this time.

Aurand, Harold W. From the Molly Maguires
to the United Mine Workers; The Social Ecology of an Industrial Union:
1869-1897. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1971.

This book has a well-rounded amount of information on the region’s physical
surroundings, the industry, community, individual lifestyle, the first
union to the last, mine safety, and historical contracts and rules.

This large volume offers an in-depth look at the product of coal.
It is biased in that it says miners enjoyed the work of mining, failing
when shown farming as a way of life. It tells the early strikes of
the labor union up until the strike of 1874, calling it “devastating to
miners” (709). The Mollies are sketched -- their own secrecy and
the natural forests named their biggest allies.

Brenckman, Fred. History of Carbon County,
Pennsylvania. James J. Mingesser, 1913. 127-47.

A seemingly accurate picture of the breadth and depth of the organization,
the trial and the bravery of the men when facing death, the facts of the
innocent being hung, and the actual events they were hung for. Given the
accurate portrayal of history, the bite is against the Mollies, calling
them “renegades” and other names not lending to nobility. The section
is filled with words which work to undermine the cause of the labor movement.
In the end, we understand the Mollies to be a group of marauding social
deviants unhappy with their jobs and without any real claim to injustice.

A hefty volume beginning with “Ireland sends a legacy,” a section devoted
to the origin of the Molly Maguires’ name, Franklin Benjamin Gowen's (the
D.A. in Schuylkill Township and future owner of the Reading Railroad) personal
vendetta against the Mollies, James McParlan (the detective) and his role,
proceeding all the way to “The Day of the Rope,” in which ten men were
hung by their necks until dead.

More about coal and less about the Mollies, this book has only three
pages dedicated to them. It does, however, offer an extensive amount
of information on the natural resource of coal, its function throughout
the world of the 1800s, the means by which it was attained, and the history
of the coal industry as far as labor rights.

Gudelunas, Jr., William Anthony, and William G. Shade.
Before
the Molly Maguires: The Emergence of the Ethnoreligious Factor in the Politics
of the Lower Anthracite Region: 1844-1972. New York: Arno Press, 1976.

This book focuses on the suffrage power of ethnoreligious factions.
The Mollies are shown to be a matter-of-fact powerhouse in buying votes,
rigging elections, and campaigning by merely telling their fellow Irishmen
who to vote for.

History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
New York: W.W. Munsell and Co., 1881. 97-106.

An account of the Mollies, written by an anonymous local historian,
documenting the situation much like Brenckman.

Examines controversy surrounding the Molly Maguires, a secret society
of miners and laborers seeking to improve working conditions in Pennsylvania's
northeastern coal fields.

Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires.
New York: Oxford UP, 1998.

Another account of the history, parallel with Broehl in length – topping
300 pages.

---. "The Molly Maguires and the Catholic Church."
Labor
History 36 (1995): 345-76.

The Catholic Church and such moderate organizations as the Workingman’s
Benevolent Assoc. purged themselves from the Mollies and helped to purge
the Irish-American identity of its violent and unorthodox elements.
Based on letters, church statements and records, court records, newspapers,
and secondary sources. The writer examines the conflict between the
Catholic Church and the Molly Maguires. He argues that the Catholic
Church had a vital stake in the trials and executions of the Molly Maguires
in the late 1870s, given that the general acceptance of its version of
Irish-American ethnicity depended on the eradication of the Molly Maguires.
Among the more significant results of the Molly Maguire episode, he finds,
was a final resolution of the conflict between the Catholic Church and
the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The result, he contends, was a model
of Irish-American ethnicity that conformed to the doctrinal teachings and
social philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church and eschewed the social
activities and cultural practices embodied by the Molly Maguires.

Reviews two recent original studies (Arthur H. Lewis, Lament for
the Molly Maguires [New York: Harcourt, 1964] and Wayne G. Broehl,
The
Molly Maguires [Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1964] ), and one reprint of
a 19th-century work (Francis P. Dewees, The Molly Maguires: The Origin,
Growth, and Character of the Organization [New York: Franklin, 1964]
). Dewees is described as well-intentioned but misled by 19th-century
prejudices in favor of property-owning classes. Lewis’ work is an
unscholarly popularization of an anti-Molly Maguire attitude. Broehl's
book is serious, makes use of newly opened Reading Railroad and Pinkerton
files, and tries to be judicious. However, it over emphasizes the
history of Hibernian secret societies as well as maintaining a pro-Pinkerton
bias. The real truth, Lane argues, is that the Mollies were convicted
on the testimony of one unreliable Pinkerton spy in an attempt to discredit
the labor movement in general.

Lavell, John P. The Hard Coal Docket.
Lehighton: Times News, 1944.

In depth, modern, and seemingly objective look at the coal region, the
coal industry, the miners, capitalists, and Molly Maguires. June
21, 1877, the Day of the Rope, documented, and we are told that it was
Alexander Cambell’s hand, not Thomas Fischer’s which appears on cell number
17’s wall in the Mauch Chunk prison.

A long and seemingly accurate portrayal of the times in the coal region
beginning in the late 1860s. This book begins with documentation from supposed
witnesses' statements on John Kehoe’s murder of Frank W. J. Langdon.
The book ends with his execution a year after “Black Thursday” (e.g., “The
Day of the Rope” -- June 21, 1877). The major discrepancies I found
in this book involve the circumstances of the arrest of James Kerrigan,
Michael Doyle, and Edward Kelly for the murder of John P. Jones.

The book is a composite of varying perceptions and quotations from witnesses
and gossipers, Mollies who were talking at the time and were recorded,
defendants and prosecutors, etc. In this book, we do not learn of
John Kehoe’s actual words, more of a hearsay version that has been passed
through various family members, as many of the other quotes have been.
In the end, we gain an amazing amount of insight based on McParlan’s interview
with Jake Haas, mysteriously dubbed “Jim Haas’ grandfather” (46).
Did the author have access to Jake Haas or his grandson? We never
know, but from this source, we are made to feel as if we are in the same
room, sipping a whiskey and listening to McParlan’s account with specifics
on his angle and his perceptions, obviously biased to make him look like
a good guy. “’If you can believe the stuff he told me, and I’m inclined
to, though some of it was pretty wild,’ said Jake Haas, Jim Haas’ grandfather
. . .” (47)

Cutting away from McParlan, another major voice on the insides of the
organization is James Kerrigan’s, the Molly who turned state’s evidence
as one-time Tamaqua bodymaster of the AOH. Other quotations of various
bystanders show the reality in action of the crimes’ details. While
the documentation of the extraordinary violence comes mostly from newspapers,
it could also be trumped up by the author at numerous places where sources
become ambiguous and, at that point, to the passive reader, arbitrary.
The narrator, writing this book in the late 1950s, early 1960s definitely
dealt with a lot of bullshit that had passed down the oral pipeline.
The sources he does allow himself seem believable, as the character sketches
are sound. But the hand print is consistently given credit to Alexander
Campbell throughout other resources and even by the owner of the Mauch
Chunk jail himself, not to Thomas Fischer.

The Life and Execution of Jack Kehoe, King of the
Molly Maguires, Together with a Full Account of the Crimes and Executions
of the Other Principles in the Terrible Organization. Philadelphia:
Barclay and Company, 1878.

Claiming the reign was “14 years of terror” (1), this thin paper pamphlet
is media. As media, it is mediated. The men hung in Pottsville
are documented as Thomas Duffy, James Carroll, James Roarity, James Boyle,
Hugh McGehan – killed for the murder of Benjamin F. Yost (also called Frank
B. Yost in this same literature), a Tamaqua policeman. Also hung
in Pottsville were Thomas Munley for the murder of Thomas Sanger and William
Uren from Raven Run. Hung at the Mauch Chunk prison were Michael
Doyle and Edward Kelly for the murder of John P. Jones in Lansford, Alexander
Campbell for the murder of Morgan Powell at Summit Hill, and John "Yellow
Jack" Donahue.

The booklet proceeds to call the murder of John P. Jones as the catalyst
bringing the Mollies to their knees, with the arrest of Kerrigan, Doyle,
and Kelly. Frank B. Yost of Tamaqua’s biography is found here, along
with Thomas Sanger and William Uren’s, with their murderers’ Charles and
James McAllister, along with Thomas Duffy. The unknown author says
Kehoe authorized Sanger’s death; this is according to Kerrigan. The bios
of other Mollies follow: Hugh McGehan, James Roarity, James Carroll, Alexander
Campbell, Edward J. Kelly, Michael J. Doyle, along with Kehoe’s.

We are shown a “Coffin Notice” death threat the Mollies were infamous
for sending. It accounts the “Day of the Rope” in Pottsville and
Mauch Chunk and explains McParlan’s role as the detective destroying the
Mollies. Jack Kehoe is shown talking here about McParlan as a man
and Franklin Gowen as a man. It is this that makes the pamphlet worthwhile.

A collection of pictures and etchings of those involved can be found
beginning on page 55. Included are images in the following order
with captions underneath :

Beechwood Coliery, a sight of countless threats at bosses and mine foreman.
Franklin B. Gowen, president of Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, catalyst
for the merger with Lehigh Valley Railroad, attorney representing the company,
district attorney of Schuylkill County for some time, the man who plotted
McParlan’s role with Allan Pinkerton.

James McParlan, the Pinkerton detective whose 44-month infiltration
brought the Molly Maguires to destruction, testified in court against many
named Mollies. Jack Kehoe’s Hibernian House, the alleged meeting
place of the Mollies when, McParlan claimed, Kehoe presided as the county
delegate of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, doubling as the Mollies.

John "Black Jack" Kehoe, the county delegate of the AOH, named the "King
of the Mollies," hung on December 18, 1878, for the stoning death of Frank
W. J. Langdon in 1862.

Thomas Sanger, a foreman who was murdered by the Mollies. Thomas
Munley, a Molly who was held responsible for the murder of Sanger and William
Uren, hung on June 21, 1877. James Kerrigan, bodymaster of the Tamaqua
AOH and a social butterfly, according to Lament for the Molly Maguires,
who turned state's evidence, earning the nickname of "Squealer."

James Roarity, hung on June 21, 1877 for the murder of Benjamin F. Yost.
Alex Campbell, bodymaster in the Lansford area, found guilty of the murder
of James P. Jones and Margan Powell, hung on the "Day of the Rope," June
21, 1877, proclaiming his innocence, his handprint is still seen on the
Carbon County Jail’s cell wall which he placed there while on his way to
the gallows. A discrepancy exists in the Lament for the Molly Maguires,
which claims Tom Fischer made the handprint, quoting a December 16, 1931
headline from "The Philadelphia Enquirer."

Judge Cyrus L. Pershing, the judge who ruled over the Schuylkill trials
of the Mollies. Revisionist historians criticize him for his biased feelings
toward the Mollies as an organization, not taking into account individual
crimes.

The Schuylkill jail and courthouse. The Pottsville jail’s gallows,
erected along the east wall. The Penn Hotel in Pottsville, where
McParlan stayed during the trials. Various images of the mock trial
of John Kehoe when he was reinvented as innocent.

Pinkerton, Alan. The Molly Maguires and the
Detective. New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1972.

Pinkerton's perspective of the case, the infiltration by McParlan, and
the justice brought to the men in the Molly Maguires.

West, R. A. (stenographical reporter). The Argument of Franklin
B. Gowen, Esq. Of counsel for the commonwealth in the case of The Commonwealth
versus Thomas Munley. Pottsville: Book and Job Room, 1876.

This source documents the actual case, the only Molly case Franklin
B. Gowen acted as prosecutor for, in alarming detail. Word for word,
evidence and witnesses are recalled from the original stenographic report.

The Irish-American radicals called the Molly Maguires were actually
a small band of petty criminals within the Ancient Order of Hibernians
who called themselves “Sleepers.” The violent acts they committed
can best be understood within the context of ethnic gang violence in Schuylkill
County, PA. Following the lead of Miners’ Journal editor Benjamin
Bannan in bashing Irish Catholics, Franklin B. Gowen , president of the
Reading Railroad, began a public campaign against the Molly Maguires, who,
he said, forced him to take strong action against the labor movement.

This text offers an idea of what the Irish in America were facing upon
arrival in America. It documents the potato famine of 1849 and the subsequent
deluge of Irish poring into the American employment market.

Video Resources

In Search of History : The True Story of the Molly
Maguires. History Channel, 1991.

A chronicle of the events. There is no doubt that the film ignores many
facets of history, considering it is only a ninety-minute documentary.
The question of its attribution is decidedly objective from this reviewer.
It notes that this was a time when the political powers were allied against
the miners and also when anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment ran at
a fever pitch. It also states that the courts were stacked in the
favor of big business. But does that mean the Mollies were innocent?
Here, in this documentary, their descendants argue passionately for their
cause, and the century-old evidence is re-investigated. This is an
unbiased look at the case.

The following links can be found from this central location :
Coal Mining & The Molly Maguires; Coal Mining in Pennsylvania - Centralia:
A Burning Issue; Coal Region Home Page -- a collection of nostalgia and
regionalisms from the Anthracite; Coal Region of Pennsylvania; A Guide
to the Molly Maguires book review, courtesy of An Scáthán;
Making Sense of the Molly Maguires book review, courtesy of An Scáthán;
The Mollies' Jailer magazine article, courtesy of An Scáthán;
John Hower's articles on the Mollies: Ethic Lines Divided Coal Fields,
Rough Conditions Existed In Coal Fields, Undercover Agent Infiltrated Mollies;
Memory of the Molly Maguires Kept Alive; The Molly Maguires; Molly Maguires
Information scans of original documents - articles and trial transcript

This text is from Compton’s online encyclopedia. It is an information
driven account of the history in three long paragraphs. Some new
information : “A few years later the English author Arthur Conan Doyle
used the Molly Maguires as the basis for his work `The Valley of Fear,'
featuring the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.”

An encyclopedia resource that claims McParlan’s secret reports were
released in 1947 for study. I have never been able to find them.
Also misinformed, claiming ten Mollies were hung when the number was double
that.

An absolutely pro-Molly Maguires page, with the Irish flag heading the
information. This page seems to provide a keen sense of the times,
not only the treachery and deceit of the capital owners, but also of the
Mollies themselves. This is a great site with annotated quotes, links
with other sites, and a sense of the reality of the crimes and the reality
of the punishments – the badness of both sides.

“The Trials
The trials for those who were believed to be involved with the "Molly
Maguires" were mere formalities. Society and government, as well as the
Catholic Church, had already convicted them. Gowen, who acted as state
prosecutor in some of the cases (conflict of interests?) is quoted as having
said, "The name of a Molly Maguirebeing attached to a man's name is sufficient
to hang him" (Bimba 83). With source quoted : Bimba, Anthony. The
Molly Maguires: The True Story of Labor's Martyred Pioneers in the Coalfields.
International Publishers, New York. 1950.

CLEVELAND MOFFETT. THE OVERTHROW OF THE MOLLY MAGUIRES; STORIES
FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE PINKERTON DETECTIVE AGENCY. McCLURE'S MAGAZINE,
1894. pp. 90- 100.

“SOME twenty years ago five counties in eastern Pennsylvania were dominated,
terrorized, by a secret organization, thousands strong, whose special purpose
was to rob, burn, pillage, and kill. Find on the map that marvellous mineral
country, as large as Delaware, which lies between the Blue Mountains on
the south and the arm of the Susquehanna on the north, and there you will
see what was the home of these banded outlaws, the merciless Molly Maguires.
Look in Carbon County for Mauch Chunk, with its towering hills and picturesque
ravines, and from there draw a line westward through Schuylkill County
and into Northumberland County as far as Shamokin. This line might well
be called the red axis of violence, for it cuts through Mount Carmel, Centralia,
Raven Run, Mahanoy Plane, Girardville, Shenandoah, Tamaqua, Tuscarora,
and Summit Hill, towns all abounding in hateful memories of the Molly Maguires.
Now, on this line as a long diameter, construct an egg-shaped figure, to
include in its upper boundary Wilkesbarre in Luzerne County and Bloomsburg
in Columbia County, and on its lower to pass somewhat to the south of Pottsville.
Your egg will be about fifty- miles long and forty miles across, and will
cover scores of thriving communities that once were the haunts of the murderers
and ruffians who polluted with their crimes this fair treasure garden of
a great State.”

This article is filled with such raw emotionally opinionated media documentation
of what happened that it historically disagrees with McParlan’s testimony,
McParlan’s real name – certainly not “McParland,” where he was before he
took the job – Chicago not Ireland, and other discrepancies that run deeply
into the heroification of Alan Pinkerton, Capt. Linden, McParlan, Gowen,
etc., while disgustingly demoralizing the Mollies, allowing them no labor-related
motivations. For 1894, it seems the media was a device to misrepresent
reality.

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